Lindsay Ricketts

I had the most amazing time in Sevilla, a town in the south of Spain. The heat was intense, but the city and people, absolutely beautiful. Experienced full “typical spanish” days of a light breakfast, siesta throuogh the hottests hours, the most delicious tapas ive had (including viniger friend fish and goat cheese with burnt honey… oooooh baby) for lunch and dinner, and leaving the hotel to begin the nightlife at 12:30pm and staying out till 4. Those are the only decent hours during the day in sevilla as far as weather goes! good food, interesting bars and clubs, and i made friends with this group of girls from Sevilla and danced the rest of a night with them since the people from my group punked out. How could you pass up an amazing cafe with fish bowls for lampshades while michael jacksons ABC song blares in the back as you are talking to locals who are excited to converse?? I didnt!! I got a little more confident in my spanish then too, due to friend Doris who is in the little program as well. We began to force ourselves to talk in spanish, or at least spanglish, and had a wonderful time with lots of new vocab for me.

then we went back to madrid and school… and discouragment flooded back after classes today. I dont want this to be the main subject of the blog after so many good times just happened, but I am struggling. I just dont feel like im going to grasp it, which seems ridiculous since im living in a spanish speaking house in a spanish country, taking spanish classes. How can i not grasp it? Ive also had to really fight alot of pessimisim and complaining here - i dont understand it, but so many complaints fly about, especially from the girls int he group. isnt getting lost, changing plans, and lossing money a bit expected??? I usually counter it with some dancing or singing or muse about the lovelies of spain, but there are other times that i want to snap.

but yes, sevilla was fantastic. many places were built by the arabs, who conquered much of southern spain at one point, and their arquitexture was breathtaking. and so much water, always water and mosaics and arches… we also went to the house of our director (who we adore) since he is from sevilla and got to enjoy his big family and his POOL, which was a luxury for us. oh. and the hotel we stayed in was so refreshing! a big that fits me!! a shower that has hot water and pressure!! soap!! (oh. maybe i shouldnt have said that.. ;) )

and i JUST bought my ticket to italy, venice for a three day weekend to travel with Ladi! I was planning on doing basque country, but great travel partners make a huge difference, and this really pessimistic, negative kid from my group stole my whole trip to san sabastein and that sounds, mmmmmm, not so good. plus, i mean, who can stand up italy? it was 100 dollars more, but i think its worth it.
anyways. my love to everyone. i hope today gets better, I hope I hope i can learn this language…
lindsay

also… jeremy bought me a flickr account and my pictures, well, the ones i would really be upset about losing are up there if anyone wants to see! they are mixed and dont have captions, but it might be a nice trip. my account is therickett. mmmmm pictures….